It is important to understand that there’s an enormous amount of skills that every prepper should know and if there’s a skill that didn’t make it in this top 10 it doesn’t mean that it is not important, it is because this depends on what kind of prepper you are. The priorities come in a different order depending on if you live in an apartment  or you live in a off the grid farm.

The top ten skills that I picked are what I consider to be the general and most specific skills that most preppers need. Depending on your situation, you’ll understand what set of skills you’ll need. In my opinion the #1 skill is the most important skill for all preppers, so let’s see my top 10.

#1 Organization

Organization is in my opinion the #1 skill when it comes to prepping. It permeates so many different levels of prepping and it’s one of the skills that will make the difference between a successful prepper and an incomplete prepper. First of all you have to seat down and make your plans. This means creating some lists with all your priorities. Analyze where you’re at, what you need, what you already have, what are you prepping for, what are the thing you fear most. Once you’ve done with the list think at the basics like: do I have where to put my stuff?…and if you do not already have shelving units you’ll have to make them. Then think of what organization method you’re going to use in your house. Is stuff going to be where you need it to be when you need it? If something happens will you be able to walk straight to the shelf, pick it up and use it? Are you able to properly rotate all your food stock? You have everything on shelves but you cannot seat it there and forget about it forever. You need a plan to rotate all that food in order to have fresh food if SHTF. Food needs a continuous monitoring. The best way to keep track of all expiration dates is to make a schedule so you can use that food and replace it. Food is not the only thing that needs your constant attention. You need to check your chainsaw or your generator or solar panels for example. It’s no good, when you have a big storm that rolls through your neighborhood and a big tree goes down in your backyard and your chainsaw doesn’t work because you neglected it for two years and you didn’t took care of it. You have to make sure everything works properly.

#2 Frugality

This is one of the basic principles of prepping. If you’re not a frugal person you are not going to be a good prepper. Prepping is all about having the skills to stay alive and thrive and obtaining a lot of stuff that you can use in your benefit in a SHTF scenario, so being able to buy it now while it’s relatively available and inexpensive so that you can use it later when it is either not available or much more expensive. Frugality is kind of a backbone of prepping because there’s a lot of stuff to buy. Many preppers spend their money unwisely so being frugal helps a lot when it comes to prepping. You don’t want to start prepping for the eventual collapse of the American economy and in a short period of time wind up precipitating in your own micro-collapse of your own little family economy. So you definitely want to spend your money wisely.

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#3 Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is one of the fundamental general skills of prepping in my opinion. Being able to sit down and assess what risks you have and to be able to start prepping accordingly, especially when you first start prepping because you got to start somewhere right? You are not going to start with ‘’a meteor hitting your house’’, you’re gonna start much more simply than that. So think. What do you need to start? What are the most imminent fears and risks that you have? Is it an earthquake? Is it a winter storm? Is it losing your job or a collapse of the economy? The lack of risk assessment is the whole reason why many preppers fail in the first place. Many preppers say that if you are prepared for SHTF scenarios like solar EMP’s, nuclear attacks then you are prepared for many other things too. That’s very true but you’re not gonna shoot for that target right from the beginning. You’ll spend yourself right into the poor house if you do that from the beginning. It’s important to assess your risks and prep accordingly. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best, be practical with your prepping. Assess what risks you have from the beginning.

#4 First Aid

I think everybody needs to know at least basic first aid regardless you’re a prepper or not. First of all everybody need to be certified in CPR. Secondly, everybody needs to have recently taken a good first aid course. These things are all over the place…fire departments, police departments, community centers, local red cross, etc. Take them, sometimes they’re free, sometimes they cost money. Even so, take them. Go as far as you want to go in this field. If you want to become a paramedic, do it…this will be a very valuable skill post SHTF. Keep your knowledge up to date by taking a first aid class every year or practicing.

#5 Cooking and Nutrition

It is very important to know how to cook. You can’t depend on other people to cook for you. It’s essential to know how to cook with only the things you have on hand and to be able to make that food tasty too. If you don’t master this skill yet then it’s time to start cooking with your wife or your mom, start watching cooking shows or read cooking books. To understand the importance of this skill put it this way: if you do not manage to feed yourself properly and nutritiously you’re not going to last very much in a post SHTF world. This skill will be in a very big demand post SHTF because a good and tasty meal will be much more appreciated.

#6 Gardening

Gardening is a very important skill that can make the difference between life and death, thrive or starve. When I think of prepping, gardening is one of the first things that come in my mind. Everybody needs a garden, whether you live in an apartment or on a farm you need to practice some form of gardening. Even if is only growing sprouts in your kitchen or having a small garden in your backyard you need to know how to grow and cure a plant in order to obtain your own produce at some level. It is better to practice now while food is available in stores and if you fail growing your plants you won’t have to starve. Trust me, you don’t want to be learning this skill when you are going to require or be more dependent on the yield of your crops in order to have a certain level of comfort and for your survival. Gardening is not that easy as it seems, it is actually pretty hard. It is very important to do your research on what plants grow better in your area.

#7 Food Preservation & Storage

When you think of food preservation the first thing that comes in mind is a basement with lots of shelves full of cans, buckets and jars. Knowing and understanding all the food preservation techniques like smoking, curing, canning, pickling, dehydrating is very, very important. If you don’t know any of these techniques it’s time to start learning and the best way to do that is by practice. Think of a garden and all the produce that you could get all at once…you will not be able to eat it all so you have to preserve it. Knowing how to can or dehydrate will be of great value. Think that you have to go hunting and you get a big dear or any other kind of game and you won’t be able to eat all that meat at once, so you have to smoke or cure the extra meat in order to store it for later when you’ll need it.

#8 Basic Construction and Home Maintenance

Your home is your safe area. In case your home, for various reasons, will cease to exist you will have to rebuild it. A really good place to start, if you have no experience with constructions, is by going to seminars that a lot of home improvement centers like ‘’Home Depot’’ have or community colleges. Start simple. Begin building some staff at home. Build yourself a work bench, a bird house then learn how to build stronger structures. Understand how your house is built. Then learn how to maintain your home. Knowing how to keep your home in good working order will be a great skill. It is very important to do it now or it will be too late to do it when you absolutely have to. Try to be as self sufficient as you can. If you have a leak in your roof or a hole in your wall try to fix them yourself. Take plumbing courses. All these skills put together are great for barter.

#9 Communications

Information is priceless. Being able to stay informed about what is going on around you and being able to inform others about what is happening with you is very important. Understanding and learning how a ham radio works is vital and if you don’t master this yet you should take some courses, at least the basic. If you do not possess a ham radio get one, it would prove itself very handy if ever needed.

#10 Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skill or ‘’people skill’’ is the ability to communicate with people and socialize and delegate if the situation requires this. This ability helps you a lot if you have to barter, sell or buy things. You as a prepper need to have a network of friends and family and community that you can depend on when disasters happen just like we saw with hurricane Sandy. Community came together that time and helped each other. If you are not part of the community and for the last 3 years you stood in your basement with your helmet on and cleaned your rifle, guess what, you’re probably not that important to your community as you think and when SHTF you might not have the connections in your community in order to get the help that you might need to rebuild, etc. Being friendly with your neighbors and with the community you can operate as part of it and benefit from a community coming together in times of need. You can’t be a prepper by yourself, you can’t be a prepper if your family is not involved with you, you can’t be a prepper if you don’t have other friends that are preppers too and you can’t be a good prepper if you’re not out and about meeting your neighbors, and being friendly with people, communicate and being involved in your community.

So, the successful preppers are those who master these skills, are organized, are spending their money wisely, assess risk and prep accordingly, who have first aid skills, who know how to cook and provide food for their family, who can garden to provide fresh produce for their family, who can preserve and store the things that they need for long term, understand home construction, keep their house in good working order all the time, have the ability to communicate with the outside world when they need to, especially when disasters happen and has the interpersonal skills to be able to communicate with people, negotiate with people, to have family, friends and community on their side when SHTF.

Stay safe,

James

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